As soon as I received my orders from the First Sergeant at the Reception Station, I went over to the 194th Armor Brigade where I was being assigned. The Brigade Sergeant Major asked me what I knew about tanks. I told him that I could recognize them 10 times out of 10, but I had never in my life been in one. He laughed and called a SSG (Staff Sergeant) (E-6) to come into the orderly room. He introduced us and told him in two weeks he wanted me trained up on the M48A3 and the M60A1 main battle tanks, how to drive, how to load the main gun and the machine guns, and the duty and responsibilities of each of the tank crewmen, the driver, the loader, the gunner and the tank commander. After two weeks of sunup to sundown training, we reported back to the Sergeant Major. He asked me some questions and I answered them all correctly. After that, he said that the only spot he had opened for me was with D Troop, 10th Cav., the Old Buffalo Soldiers.
D Troop, 10th Cav. was basically a scout company, pressed into duty to support the Armor School with tanks and personnel. The tanks were the M551 Sheridan Light Tank. It was called a 'light' tank because the skin was made of aluminium. There was some armor around the turret. This tank was able to parachute into combat and it could also swim rivers. The main gun was a 152mm main gun/launcher. It not only fired conventional ammo but it was able to launch a MGM-51 Shillelagh guided anti-tank missile.
I moved up fast in the ranks at D Troop, finally becoming a tank commander. I was the 'top gunner' out of the Troop. One day I was approached by a Sergeant First Class and he asked me how good I was with a rifle. I told him that I had fired as Expert Marksman with the M-14 rifle, the .45 Cal. pistol, and I had also qualified with the M-3 Machine Gun (Grease Gun). He came by the next day and picked me up and took me out the the rifle range. He had a M-14 Sniper rifle and he let me fire about 50 rounds downrange. I hit each of the targets pointed out to me to engage. He left and went to talk with an officer standing in the back watching me shoot. When he came back, he asked me if I wanted to be an Army Sniper. I thought for a minute and told him that I had no problem being in a 'fire fight' where everyone was shooting at each other, but that in a clear conscious I would have a problem sneaking up on someone, who did not have an idea I was anywhere near, and then shooting them. They returned me back to the unit orderly room and I never saw them again.
Soon after this, I was transferred to K Troop, 13th Cav. which was just then being organized as a part of the 194th Armor Brigade. When I signed into the new company, there was only four people in it. The Troop Commander, the First Sergeant, the Training NCO, and myself. Before any new men could sign in, the First Sergeant went to Brigade, came back with a sorry look on his face. He called me in and said that he had just been hit up to supply one NCO E-6 or above to go to a new class the Armor School had come up with. I was the only one other than the training NCO who filled the qualifications. He hated it because he was loosing me for about 12 weeks, the length of the school. It was called the Master Gunner Course. I was in the initial class 10 students. The mission of the Master Gunner was to become an expert in all aspects of Tank Gunnery. We were to work directly with the Battalion Commanders in the field of Tank Gunnery. Out class, being the first one, was with the new M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, replacing the old M60A3. The M1A1 was a definite improvement over the M60A3. The main gun was a 120mm smooth bore cannon. This gun was a copy of the British Main Battle Tank. I believe it was call the Chieftain Tank. After the course, I went back to my unit wondering what was now going to happen. Before we had even the first tank assigned to our Troop, I was alerted for overseas movement. I was being assigned as an M1A1 Master Gunner to Camp Casey, Korea.
Well, it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life. Till the next time my friends . . . .
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